Comments

My first thought on this obs was Geopora but the Trappe/Castellano macro key on NATS led me to Hydnotrya. The only Hydnotrya species that fit was what Gilkey described as the Peziza-like version of H. variiformis with simple cavity and conspicuous opening.

From Field Guide to North American Truffles by Matt Trappe, Frank Evans, and James Trappe this comes closest to Hydnotrya variiformis var. variiformis, which has an orange-brown peridium.

Hydnotrya variiformis var. pallida is 2.54-3 cm across, and typically has pale yellow or yellow-brown tinted exterior and interior. Chambers are colored white or pale on the interior, but shared walls have yellow to yellow-brown coloration. Var. pallida to date has been described only from Pacific coastal states. An extension to 3200’ in Arizona would be difficult to imagine.

read everything and get to my own conclusions. You shouldn’t say that I didn’t read. I can’t make you see what you don’t want to see. But don’t worry, I have my own opinion, you have yours. I can live with that, don’t you?

then I give up. You were wrong when you said this couldn’t be Hynotrya because it lacked the folded/convoluted center. You are wrong about Geopora since all of the keys refer to the brown hairs being visible under the hand lens.

“Infertile (outer) surface and stem
Varying in colour from pale-brown to mid-brown, the scurfy outer surface is infertile and is covered in microscopic light-brown hairs. (The spores are produced on the shiny inner surface of the cup.)”

“The ascocarp exhibits wider variation than has previously been known in any single species of this genus. The simple Peziza-like shape found frequently in this species has typical Gyrocratera characters of a hollow fruiting body with a single apical opening. The interior, which is lined by hymenium, may be even, or may be complicated by projections from the inner surface. On the other hand, the extremely complicated forms, which also are common in this species, are typically Hydnotrya-like, in Fischer’s sense (Mykolog. Beitr. 33” 108-114. 1927), for the hymenium-lined interior is divided, by the fusion of folds, into canals and chambers which may open externally at several points.
This species, by closing the gap between Gyrocratera and Hydnotrya and identifying them as one, simplifies the explanation of the relationship in our American species…"

Please read it. It is the latest and best key available. As to H. variiformis it lives up to its name. It can have a simple empty cavity or be convoluted. If you would bother to read my references you would see: From Gilkey: “Ascocarp .7-3 cm, cinnamon-buff (R.) to cream-buff (R.), somewhat paler within; form more or less globose to somewhat depressed, minutely velutinous without, exceedingly variable within, from Peziza-like with simple cavity and conspicuous opening to….” Once again I encourage to read what she said in Mycologia or Jstor. To repeat it is simply not true that Hynotrya species all have folded or convoluted interiors as you imply. If you would read the literature I’ve cited you would find that out.

Please read it. It is the latest and best key available. As to H. variiformis it lives up to its name. It can have a simple empty cavity or be convoluted. If you would bother to read my references you would see: From Gilkey: “Ascocarp .7-3 cm, cinnamon-buff (R.) to cream-buff (R.), somewhat paler within; form more or less globose to somewhat depressed, minutely velutinous without, exceedingly variable within, from Peziza-like with simple cavity and conspicuous opening to….” Once again I encourage to read what she said in Mycologia or Jsor. To repeat it is simply not true that Hynotrya species all have folded or convoluted interiors as you imply. If you would read the literature I’ve cited you would find that out.

but a photo sometimes speaks more than a thousand of words, specially if they misinterpreted. I didn’t find the referred keys, but I read many descriptions. Here is one of them:

“Name derivation: Coined by Berkeley and
Broome (1846) from Greek, hydno- (fungus)
and -trya (a hole or opening), in reference to
the openings from the gleba to the surface
of the fruit-body.
Fruit-bodies irregular and infolded, 0.5–8
cm broad. Peridium ivory to pink, orange
brown or dark purplish brown, smooth or
minutely scurfy. Gleba hollow to fleshyfirm,
concolorous with the peridium and
permeated with small to large, labyrinthine
chambers formed by complex infolding and
fusing of the fruit-body walls…”
“Keys and descriptions: Gilkey’s (1954b) treatment is the best available, but the genus is in serious need of revision and updating. Trappe and Castellano (2000)described two new species. Castellano et al. (1999) and M. Trappe et al. (2007)described and illustrated five species between them”

where are the labyrinthine chambers on your specimens? Look at http://www.mykoweb.com/... that show your description from Gilkey and see the photos. I think your specimens are different, all sphere like, nothing of irregular.

This book has the referred key. The problem is that I see a scurfy outer surface (in the other observation I coudn’t be certain of that).

they are brown and part of the macro keys. Do you see Gilkey’s description of H. variiformis? It comes in two forms, one of which has the convoluted interior you reference at SVIMS. This is the other form she describes. I appreciate your input but I think judging this obs by photos online rather than the source work and keys I reference is not appropriate. Again, please go through the key and read the reference material.

Have you gone through any of the keys? This cannot be Geopora—no brown hairs on the exterior. The keys at NA Truffling and in Arora’s book point to Hydnotrya. In addition if you read Gilkey’s description in my notes you’ll see this is a very good match for H. variiformis.